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 * PERUSING GENIE                                            by Ed Krimin
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 -=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
 -=> from the "Font Scaling Module -- The New GDOS" topic (18)
 
 Message 59        Sat Feb 01, 1992
 B.REHBOCK [Bill@Atari]       at 16:40 EST
  
 The packaging is finally all done, the last revison of the disks is going
 to the duplicator Monday, February 3rd. Product should be showing up on
 shelves shortly. (Finally! :-)
 
 IMHO, one of the biggest drawbacks of the original GDOS was the lack of
 printer drivers that shipped with it, and the lack of developer
 understanding of the concept in general. "Back in those days",  developers
 weren't used to the idea of a generalized Operating System service to
 handle all output functions. Developers were used to writing custom drivers
 for everything, and they thought they could roll their own driver better.
 (In some cases, they did.) 
 
 We didn't go with .CVG fonts, because they are inherently _un_hinted, and
 we wanted as close to the same quality as hand-tuned bitmaps as we could
 get. 
 
 We didn't go with Adobe Type-1's, because it takes about 18 times longer to
 decode, calculate and display Type-1 fonts than QMS/Imagen FSM-9 fonts.
 There will be conversion utilities available to go from Type-1's to FSM-9
 (from third parties).
 
 -Bill @ Atari P.S. Please don't mind the crayon-drawn packaging :-)
 ----------
 
 Message 60        Sat Feb 01, 1992
 M.EVERHART2 [MIDIMIKE]       at 20:41 EST
  
 Since it's in duplication, tell us what's in the FSMGDOS package - what
 fonts,
 printer drivers, etc.
 ----------
 
 Message 66        Tue Feb 04, 1992
 B.REHBOCK [Bill@Atari]       at 02:17 EST
  
 I'll put together a listing of the printer drivers, etc. that are  included
 with FSM GDOS. Off the top of my head... 
 
 FSMGDOS.PRG....... The O/S extension itself, scales fonts from 4 to
                    1000 points, gives the VDI GEM/3 Bezier drawing
                    capability and enhanced polyline/polygon functions,
                    caches old GDOS bitmap fonts and uses separate cache
                    for FSM Font information and bitmaps. 
 
 FONTGDOS.PRG...... Alternate non-scaling version that uses only GDOS
                    bitmap fonts and not FSM scaleable ones. Doesn't 
                    slow the VDI down by 30% like the old GDOS did.
                    (Neither does FSMGDOS :-) Extends the drawing
                    capabilities of the VDI also. Caches bitmap fonts
                    for more efficient use of memory. Designed for the
                    user that is squeezed for memory. 
 
 FSMGDOS.CPX/ACC... Allows user to configure FSM Caches, current
                    library of fonts to use, special options are
                    provide for maximum compatibility with old, poorly
                    written programs. 
 
 FONTGDOS.CPX/ACC.. Primarily a "Printer-Picker"; never edit an
                    ASSIGN.SYS file again! Allows Draft/Final quality
                    control of printer driver, installation and
                    configuration of GDOS bitmap fonts and extended
                    drivers for Metafiles, Plotters, Screen Drivers,
                    etc. Also sets up Driver/Bitmap Font path
                    configuration. 
 
 FSMPRINT.CPX/ACC.. Allows user to customize printer drivers to set
                    page size, default quality, and in the future
                    paper tray selection, etc. 
 
 Printer Drivers include... SLM, FX80/LX (standard & wide), NX1000,
 JX80 (color), Oki Color, LaserJet, DeskJet, Canon Bubble Jet, NEC
 P6/P7, Epson Compatible 24 pin (B/W & Color), and the new Epson LQ570.
 (I am sure that this list is not complete.) 
 
 But that's not all... you also get a very user-friendly Install
 program that sets everything up for you.
 
 One happy and important note... Atari is making the FSM Printer Driver
 Builder Kit available to qualified developers AT NO COST under the
 following stipulations:
 
    1) The driver must be approved by Atari before it is released by
       the developer.
    2) The developer must not attempt to add functionality to the
       driver without first consulting Atari. (To ensure maximum upward
       compatibility.)
    3) The developer must give Atari non-exclusive rights to the source
       code of the driver. (To ensure that the driver library is
       available to all users, and can be updated quickly should the
       need arise.)